294 FUNGI. 



Once only we found the Loose Morel (M. semilibera) 

 in a thicket on the banks of the Swale. Here the stem is 

 free from juncture with the substance of the head for 

 some distance, though overshadowed by it. The honey- 

 comb is larger, and the head much smaller in proportion 

 to the height of the stem, than in the edible species. The 

 Spread Morel we have none of us found. 



The Mitre Helvella (H. Lacunosa, Plate XIX., fig. 

 14) was one of our highland treasures. We had spent 

 the night at Ballahulish, and as the steam boat would 

 not call on its way to Fort William until noon, we set 

 forth for an early ramble, hoping to gain treasures for our 

 botanical collection. We rambled up the hills, crossing 

 runlets, and stony places, where waters raged in the 

 winter, and finding mosses in profusion, and beautiful 

 lichens, and delicate branches of the ramping fumitory, 

 and heath in abundance. But no fungus greeted our 

 eyes till we reached the low ground again, and the 

 distant steam of the boat appeared cloud-like over the 

 waters. Then, with an exclamation of delight, we sprang 

 forward to gather the most curious and uncanny group 

 of funoi that we ever beheld. The stems were all 

 wrinkled and grooved, the heads bloated and bulged 

 into every possible form. One might have been an old 

 mitre made of felt, and knocked about and weather- 

 beaten, till it was al] bulges and hollows, another w T as 

 more like a cocked hat, while others again were club- 

 shaped, only verging slightly towards the form of the 

 mitre. The black heads contrasted strongly with the 

 white stems, and the effect of both was heightened by 

 the lovely moss carpeting the ground beneath them, 



